Rainn Wilson has admitted that his new role as an unlikely superhero in James Gunn's dark comedy Super has given him sex appeal to audiences for the first time.

Wilson, best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC comedy The Office, said that he was initially shocked when women admitted that they found themselves attracted to him after he took on the mantle of the 'Crimson Bolt'.

"What I didn't expect is that women are reacting to the movie," Wilson told the Los Angeles Times. "I have women coming up and saying, 'I never really thought of you as an attractive guy and in the first half of the movie you're such a schlub, but then by the end I was like, 'Wow'."

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Super follows an unlucky middle-aged man who loses his wife to a charming strip club owner, and decides to become a real superhero in order to fight crime and win her back.

"I guess women really do like a guy with a square jaw in a costume blowing guys away," Wilson joked. "If he knows how to swing a wrench, a guy can be a hero."